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Event Marketing for B2B in Russia

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B2B marketing is quite limited in tools compared with B2C segment. However, the point at issue today is about a tool designed for B2B sales – events for B2B companies – conferences, showcases, exposures on which you can share information about your company, its services or products with your target audience in sympathetic surroundings. For information on how to organize an event for B2B companies and get the maximum response and feedback, read RMAA Group report.

Direct sales still form the basis for promotion in B2B segment. It makes sense to call on to decision makers only. The problem is that if you come to the office of your prospective client or call him on the phone, you may turn to be a persona non-grata that distracts a client from urgent matters. Needless to say, this could have a negative impact on the prospects for cooperation. You can also write e-mails, but at this rate your e-mails run a risk to receive no response or not to be read at all.

One of the most successful cases for promotion in B2B segment are various events where your prospective clients come to prepared for a dialogue with you and are already interested in your products or services. At the same time, you can assemble an audience for a conference devoted to some kind of sectorial problem or discuss trends in common field of interest; while at the actual conference not advertise your product to the whole audience, but to talk about it in an informal setting. In any case, a client who visits your event will accept any business proposals of you more favorably.

The first step in the organization of the event is defining of the target audience. As a rule, the target audience of B2B segment is distinguished more precisely than in B2C segment. To work with target audience you will need a CRM database. The more complete data base contains, the more effective your work will be. As for information on how to collect data for CRM B2B database we wrote lately.

While working out the target audience you will need to distinguish a VIP audience from the general population of your prospective clients, i.e. the most valuable clients that you pay careful attention to. For example, in addition to the invitation you can send your VIP audience some gift. That gift may be just a nice event ticket or something more valuable. It is important to give the event the actions of status in the eyes of the audience.It is also good idea to make a mailout of some analytical reports or white papers before the event, which will grant you an expert status.

It is useful to fall back upon a few interaction channels for invitation. For example, you can send an invitation via e-mail or by help of delivery service (to VIP audience), and then control the registration process by phone. In general, the control of registration is an important part of event management that should be kept a good look-out for.

Note: Percentages comprise marketers who each content tactic as 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale where 5 = "Very effective" and 1 = "Not at all effective"

At events, B2B companies usually make it a point to shift prospective clients to the next stage of the purchase funnel: appointments, showcases of demo product at the customer’s premises, and so on. Although direct present case on showcases in not prohibited, but is not customary. Thus, the most common appeal at such events is an appeal to apply for consultation with specialists of the company.

At the actual event it is important to get feedback from the audience by means of polls or questionnaires. It is significant to get an idea of what people think about the past event, if they consider it useful and successful, would they like to attend such events of your company in future. Also in the questionnaire can be included an information about customer engagement in certain products of your company.

The post-event follow up should be conducted after the actual event. You can ring up every attendee and ask for their opinion about the conference and offer to apply for consultation with your specialist once again. Furthermore, there may be other forms of interaction at this stage. Since the client is already familiar with your proposal, you can get straight to the active sales. You can also offer a client to subscribe to any newsletter or send some extras.

Events are one of the most efficient ways of promotion in the segment of B2B; they provide an opportunity not only to present your product or service in an advantageous situation, but also to answer any questions raised and get feedback. RMAA Group specialists will help you to organize and keep the events that are remembered by the audience and increase your sales.

 

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About the Author

Digital Strategist. Head of one of the project groups at RMAA. Maria started her journey in digital marketing in 2009. 

Author Maria Romanenko

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